I barely hear any of it.
She’s completely lost her mind.
I love her, but she has completely, spectacularly lost her mind.
I look up at the fluorescent lights of Edmund Mills’s conference room and take a very slow breath.
It’s a no-brainer really.
I’ll do whatever she wants as long as that bookstore is mine in the end.
But the big question is, where on earth am I going to find a husband?
ChapterThree
Easton
“Wait, let me read the letter again.”Callie swipes it out of my hand while we’re headed down the diaper aisle.
I’m too busy looking up and down the aisle and wondering how on Earth I’m supposed to pick which kind of diaper to put on this little guy.I can read a pitcher’s release in half a second and time a ninety-five mile per hour fastball, but I can’t decide between the best for dryness, the best for skin irritation, and the best protection from a blowout.Fucking hell.
Thankfully, we’ve put Tanner in a stroller that Callie and Foster’s daughter, Ellis, already grew out of.
Callie clears her throat and reads, “‘East, this is Tanner.He is your son.I’m not in a position to take care of him the way he deserves, but I know you are.Please take care of him.’”
Why does she think I’m capable of taking care of a baby?Who the hell is she?
“UsingEastimplies you had a close relationship with her.”Leighton grabs a package of diapers and tosses them into the cart Foster is pushing.He’s mostly smiling and laughing down at Ellis in the cart seat.
Of course our entire friend brigade thought it was their job to join us.Because apparently finding a surprise baby on your doorstep is a group activity now.Which I’m thankful for.Otherwise my wallet would be empty, and I’d be begging any mother to help me.
My only saving grace is Hayes and Decker got bribed by Monroe and Hazel to go to the toy section, and lately Lincoln shadows Hayes like a second baseman covering a steal.
“Keep your voice down, I do not need this in the gossip blogs.”I take the letter back from Callie and shove it in my pocket.One blurry photo of us, and it’ll be headline news before opening day.
“You think you’re gonna be able to keep this out of the press?”Foster glances at Callie, and they share a laugh at my expense.
“Which is the reason I’m pushing the stroller, right?”Penelope stares into the stroller as though Tanner were hers.She volunteered and looks so damn comfortable doing it.I haven’t felt this envious since Cade Reston got drafted before me.
The fact that we’re all here in the big box store shopping for baby supplies for what is apparentlymykid crashes into me.My chest tightens, pushing all the air from my lungs.I grip the edge of a metal shelf and bend forward, trying to grab a breath.
“Hey, relax.”Foster puts his hand on my shoulder.
But the blackness is closing in around the edge of my vision.
I swear I’ve always used a condom.Not once did I deviate so that I could make sure I was never in this position, but somehow, here I am.I listened to every safe-sex lecture in health class.I followed the rules as though they were my religion, so how am I here with a kid I don’t even know is mine but most likely is?And his mother just abandoned him?
This is so fucked.
“Why don’t you guys go get the formula and stuff?”Foster says.
The women, the cart, and all the babies disappear down the aisle.
I slide to the floor, resting my back along the racks and bringing my knees up to my chest.
“I get it.This is another world.A world you never thought you’d be in.”Foster sits next to me.
Thank God it’s so late so there aren’t a lot of prying eyes on us.The last thing I need is someone filming this and uploading “MLB shortstop collapses in diaper aisle.”Imagine the rumor mill then.
